New Science Lab for Kids

At Powhatan, new science lab lets students feel like scientists

BOYCE — Huddled around a beaker filled with hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, yeast and food coloring, Powhatan School fifth-graders Carter Bessette, Cal Beckett and Jag Fitzsimmons-Call watched excitedly as their concoction bubbled and frothed on a lab table in the school’s new lower school science room.

“It looks like ice cream!” exclaimed Cal as he dipped his finger into the foam.”

About half of the school’s nearly 250 students are benefiting from the new science room, which opened this fall to serve the school’s first- through fifth-graders.

“Having this lab is a lot more engaging for the kids because they feel like scientists,” director of development Amy Sluss said. “They can get messy.”

Prior to last year, lower school students had science in their home classrooms, Sluss said. Last year, the school began using what Sluss called a “makeshift lab space,” and over the summer it was gutted and renovated.